Sneha Ullal reveals Aishwarya Rai’s surprising reaction to their ‘lookalike’ comparisons

3 min readChennaiMar 16, 2026 12:34 PM Back in 2005, actor Sneha Ullal made a lot of noise, and it wasn’t because she was going to make her big Bollywood debut with Salman Khan, but because of her close resemblance to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, with fans and media alike dubbing her Aishwarya’s ‘doppelganger’. In a recent interaction, Sneha revealed how Aishwarya Rai reacted to their comparisons and also spoke about her experience of working with Salman Khan.
Speaking to AlphaNeon Studioz, Sneha said, “Salman Khan supported me a lot during Lucky shoot.” When asked if Salman was ever irritated with her because she was a debut actress and he was a seasoned star much senior to her, she said, “Not even once. He was very patient with me, very supportive. Salman Khan didn’t show the Salman Khan attitude to me that people know about.”
Sneha had a chance to meet Aishwarya during her heydays in Bollywood. She shared what transpired during their meeting and how she apologised to the actor for the media comparing her to the Devdas star. “I met Aishwarya once, and she said ‘Welcome to the family. Welcome to Bollywood’, something like that. I told her ‘I’m sorry, please don’t hate me’. There was so much comparison in the media at that time, I didn’t know if she took offence.”
Sneha shared that she was first spotted Salman’s ser Arpita Khan’s friends when she was just starting college, and it was around the same time when auditions for Salman’s film, Lucky: No Time for Love, were taking place. That’s how she eventually got the film. “I never wanted to come in acting. I was in college. When Aishwarya Rai became Miss world at that time, I was becoming Miss World in my own world because when she got recognised globally, I became famous in my small world because a lot of people used to tell me that I look like her.”
She added, “Many people had approached me before to become an actor, but I was not interested in it. I have been a tomboy, and I’m not glamorous.”
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Sneha also spoke about how the media talked about Salman casting her in Lucky: No Time for Love because she resembled Aishwarya Rai. For the unversed, Salman and Aishwarya were reportedly in a relationship around 1999 but soon parted ways. Speaking about the same, she said, “The PR activity was like this. Obviously, I was coming with Salman Khan, so people will recognise me like that, but it never bothered me because I was very young, and I had no ego.” She added, “I have never been beauty conscious and these comparisons never bothered me.”